Strange Rain

Ever heard the phrase, "It's raining cats and dogs?" Usually someone says it when it's raining really hard. It seems like an odd way to describe it. Have you ever wondered where the phrase may have come from? As odd as it may sound, it may be that it actually rained cats and dogs somewhere before.

I'm not actually aware of a specific account of it raining cats or dogs anywhere, but there have been reports of other animals falling from the sky like rain. Strange rains have been documented in different parts of the world at different points in time. Here are some examples:

• In Kansas City, Missouri in 1873, frogs fell from the sky during a storm.
• Several one foot long alligators fell on a farm in South Carolina in 1877.
• In Worcester, England in 1881, a thunderstorm rained down periwinkles and hermit crabs.
• In Naphilon, Greece in 1981, frogs also rained down from the sky during a storm. Oddly enough, it was an African species of frog!
• In Ipswich, Australia in 1989, around 800 sardines apparently fell from the sky during a light shower.
• Thousands of corn husks fell on Wichita, Kansas in 2001.

You can find more examples here.

The most recent example I have heard about is a tadpole rain in Japan that occurred earlier this year. Tadpoles mysteriously rained down around Hiroshima, Japan.

One of the most popular theories to explain some of these cases is that a waterspout or tornado may have picked up the various "strange rains" and carried them in the air where they rained down from the sky. Sometimes airplanes or birds may be implicated. Although these explanations may explain some of the cases, none of these explanations can necessarily explain all the cases. For one, if waterspouts or tornadoes are the culprits, how is it that they seem to only pick up one type of object or animal? Potentially, you'd think there be a whole mess of different things strewn about. In the Greek case that I mentioned above, the frogs weren't even native to the area either! As for airplanes, there are many cases of these strange rains occurring before airplanes were invented. Birds may have been able to pick up some of the objects and animals that have fell from the sky, but some of the animals would have probably been to heavy for most birds. It's also odd that birds would pick up so many of the same type of animal or object and then proceed to fly to a certain location and just drop them.

In addition to raining various different animals and objects, there are some cases where water rained down on one specific spot. Consider these cases from the Carolina's in 1886:

• Rained poured down on a piece of land in Chesterfield, South Carolina for 14 days. Oddly enough, there weren't even any clouds the rain could be attributed to.
• The Charlotte Chronicle in North Carolina reported that several eyewitnesses observed rain falling on one specific spot between two red oak trees at 3 PM everyday over a three week period. It was always sunny too.
• A 10 foot piece of land in Aiken, South Carolina received rainfall too.

There really doesn't seem to be a good explanation for many of these strange rains. They are very mysterious indeed.

The Hidden Folk

It may come as a surprise to some, but there are still a lot of people in the world today that believe in elves, fairies, gnomes, trolls, and the like. And it's not just people in poor parts of Eastern Europe or third world countries either. A significant portion of the population of Iceland still believes in the "hidden folk", also known as the "little people".

I remember seeing a documentary some years ago about Leprechauns in Ireland. Although most people in Ireland no longer believe in Leprechauns, there are still some that do. And, according to that documentary, there were farmers who claimed not to believe in them, yet, they still wouldn't farm areas of land traditionally thought to be Leprechaun territory. And while the vast majority of the population of the Western world no longer believes in the little people, there are still some that do here and there.

So why would someone still believe in elves and fairies? Some people claim to have seen or heard them. Others may just believe because they are surrounded by people that believe (like in Iceland, where it is still popular to believe in them). But considering there are a lot of people that have seen them, what are we to make of that? Are we to assume they are all making it up? Or are we to assume they are all just drunk or on drugs? Or maybe they are misidentifying something? Or maybe a combination of the three? Or what if they really are seeing something? If they are seeing something, then what are they seeing? And why are they apparently so hard to find?

Well unlike bigfoot, the little people are, well…little, so I guess that would make it easier for them to hide if necessary. But, it may be more complex than that. The little people are what some people refer to as "elementals." Basically, elementals are spirits of the elements – earth, fire, wind, and water (just add heart and you'll have Captain Planet!). In other words, they are some type of spirit beings. Perhaps that's why they are so hard to find?

Or are they hard to find? Here is a video clip of what some have alleged is a type of gnome:

The video is probably faked, but I didn't find a good debunking of it. Snopes lists it has being false, yet I thought they had a rather poor debunking of it. Basically their evidence consisted of it can't be real because gnomes are fictional creatures, and because The Sun isn't a credible newspaper and even compared it to the Weekly World News, which is a poor comparison I think. The Sun shouldn't be confused with the American tabloid know as the Sun. The Sun has been known to report some other wild things in the past, but I wouldn't necessarily compare it to the Weekly World News; the tabloid that intentionally comes up with wild stories that are obviously meant to be sensational (such as batboy). Snopes also accused the video of being a "classic hoax video" (I'm not sure what they are considering to be classic hoax videos though) because it was short and sensational. Short and sensational it may be, but it was taken with a cell phone camcorder, and many cell phone camcorders typically can't take very long videos. Anyways….the point is it may very well be fake, but Snopes had a poor debunking of it.

So what about all the ancient cultures that believed in the existence of little people? Many ancient cultures throughout the world have some sort of tradition about little people. And not all of these cultures were connected with each other either. If they don't exist, why were there so many ancient cultures from around the world that believed in them? Did they all make up the same beliefs independently? And what exactly is the "proof" that they don't exist? Is merely stating that they don't exist because they can't be found proof of their nonexistence? Do they not exist because they haven't been found and documented by a "credible scientific authority?"

Don't misunderstand the point I want to make in this post. I'm not saying I believe in elves and fairies. I'm not necessarily trying to prove they exist. The point I want to make here is that there are still many people that do believe in them, and it's not necessarily impossible that elves and fairies could exist. Most people believe in something paranormal or supernatural, whether it be, ghosts, angels, demons, aliens, bigfoot, psychic phenomena, or any combination of those plus more. If you believe in spirits, then it's not necessarily an absurd belief that the "hidden folk" people claim to see are some sort of spirit beings. Bear in mind also that these "hidden folk" are allegedly forest spirits that avoid human contact, so unless you spend a lot of time in forests, it's unlikely you'd ever have the chance to see one anyways. So while I don't know for a fact that they do exist, I also don't know for a fact that they don't exist.

Many people may laugh at the idea of believing in elves and fairies, but bear in mind that regardless of what your beliefs are, there are other people laughing at some of the things you believe.

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-If you want to learn more about the modern belief in elves and fairies, here is a short video clip of a documentary about the belief in elves in Iceland (embedding was disabled).

-Here is an episode of Destination Truth where they go to Iceland to search for elves.

(The first part of the episode is about a Japanese lake monster, the second part is about elves.)

The All Seeing Crop Circle

Another crop circle has appeared in Wiltshire. I don’t know whether it is a “hoax” or not, although my guess would be that it was made by people. But what I found interesting about this one was the imagery the circle makers used. It appears to be an image of an owl’s face with an image of the sun surrounding it. Almost like an owl with a halo. But being a fan of both Egyptian mythology and conspiracy theory, I also considered what the crop circle image may represent.

The Eye or Ra (or Horus) is an Egyptian symbol for the sun god and is also referred to as the “All Seeing Eye”.

The Eye of Ra

The crop circle doesn’t actually incorporate the actual symbol known as the Eye of Ra, but the point is that it is a sun symbol and this crop circle incorporates an image of the sun as the background. As for the owl, the owl is used as a symbol of the Bohemian Club in California. The Bohemian Club is an “art” club of wealthy industrialists, military contractors, politicians, and other powerful people. They meet for a retreat at a place called Bohemian Grove every year for three weeks and perform a pagan/occult ceremony known as the “Cremation of Care”, where they sacrifice a human effigy to a 40-45 foot tall owl idol. In addition to being known as a symbol of wisdom, it is also said the owl is an “all seeing” symbol because owls have the ability to turn their heads all the way around. So this crop circle appears to be a combination of “All Seeing” symbols.

I don’t know whether or not the crop circle has any real significance, but I thought it was an interesting image nonetheless.

Beneath the Pyramids

For a long time I've heard stories of there being tunnels beneath the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx complex. I've heard about tunnels connecting the Pyramids to the Sphinx. I've heard that there is some sort of tomb, or hall of records beneath the Sphinx itself. So far though, there's never been an "official" confirmation of any such claims. There is evidence of their being a cavity of some sort beneath the Sphinx, and I've heard that the entrance to that cavity was cemented in decades ago. But other than that, evidence regarding the claims of tunnels below ground at Giza have either not existed, or have been kept secret.

But a British explorer has now found evidence of these tunnels. Here is an excerpt from an article published on MSNBC's website on August 14, 2009:

An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza, according to a British explorer who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs.

Populated by bats and venomous spiders, the underground complex was found in the limestone bedrock beneath the pyramid field at Giza.

"There is untouched archaeology down there, as well as a delicate ecosystem that includes colonies of bats and a species of spider which we have tentatively identified as the white widow," British explorer Andrew Collins said.

Read the rest of the article here.

So we finally have some evidence that there are some tunnels below ground at Giza. How does Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and overseer of the Giza complex react to this find? He says, "There are no new discoveries to be made at Giza. We know everything about the plateau." That's a pretty bold statement if you ask me. I know Dr. Hawass has been the overseer of the Giza complex for a long time, but to say they know "everything" about the Giza complex is a little pretentious I think.

Now I have been watching documentaries on ancient Egypt for many years now, and Dr. Hawass makes appearances in most of them. In all of my years of researching ancient Egypt and listening to Dr. Hawass on TV, I've begun to wonder if he isn't hiding something. Perhaps his statement about knowing "everything" about the Giza plateau isn't as bold as I thought. Perhaps he knows a lot more than he lets on. Maybe he knows some things that he doesn't want the public to know. I remember reading years ago about a documentary that was allegedly going to be made of an excavation below the Sphinx. I don't remember the source, but the article claimed that at some point during filming, the cameras were ordered to be shut off and the documentary never saw the light of day. Since I don't remember the source of the information, I can't confirm the validity of this claim, but I can't help but wonder that if it is true, what is it that they found that they didn't want recorded?

Some may question whether or not evidence of an important find in Egypt has ever been covered up. But the truth of the matter is, who gets to excavate what is controlled in Egypt, and the reason why they want to excavate a site is carefully scrutinized. Egypt today is a Muslim country, and Muslim beliefs place some limitations on what is allowed to be researched on Egyptian soil. In the documentary film The Exodus Decoded, the researchers pointed out that while researching material for the film, they had to keep quiet about what their true intentions were in their research. They were looking for evidence of the Biblical story of the Hebrew people's exodus out of Egypt. So why did the researchers have to keep quiet about what they were researching? Because the Muslim authorities don't want anyone finding evidence validating the stories in the Bible. The researchers not only had to keep their true intentions a secret, Egyptian authorities kept a close eye on them too. So attempts to prevent researchers from finding something is a reality in Egypt. And I think the potential to cover up a find the Egyptian or Muslim authorities don't want the public to know about certainly exists too.

So what if Dr. Hawass (and perhaps some of his cronies) knows something about the Giza complex that he doesn't want the public to know? Why would he want to hide it? Is he gaining something by keeping it a secret? Or is he hiding a religious secret that he doesn't want the world to know about? If there are caves beneath Giza, why wouldn't he want to at least have a look at them? The fact that he doesn't seem interested and even stated there is nothing new to learn about the Giza complex seems a little odd to me. It seems to me that he is either scared of what he may find, or scared of someone else knowing about what he has already found.

Chariots of Fire

I was thinking about my recent post Angels, Demons, and Aliens where I mentioned the Biblical account of Elisha watching as Elijah was carried away by a whirlwind from a chariot of fire and horses, and I was reminded of my experience of watching a "chariot" of fire. Two of them actually. Around the year 2000 or 2001, I was walking home from a walk around my neighborhood and I just happened to look up and catch a glimpse of what I thought must have been a plane that exploded and was crashing. I wasn't really sure what to do. But then it got stranger because what I thought was a crashing plane, flew back up higher in the air. Not only that, it began to fly in what seemed to be intelligently controlled zig zagging patterns and was able to do so very quickly. Whatever it was, it quickly became evident that is not a known aircraft. No kind of airplane or helicopter could fly in the patterns this object did, much less at the speed it was able to do it. It was also clearly not a meteor because it was not falling, and anytime a meteor is glimpsed; it is only for a fleeting moment.

As for the object itself, it just appeared to be some sort of flying fireball. I don't really know if it was actually flaming, or if it was just glowing a reddish orange color. As for size, I would say it was approximately three times the visible size of Venus in the sky. As for how big the object itself really was, it's hard to say because it was pretty far away. I really don't even know how far to estimate the distance away it was, but at one point I did see it go down behind some clouds on the distant horizon; indicating it was pretty far away.

I called a friend of mine on my cell phone shortly after I realized this was some sort of unidentified flying object and asked him to go outside and see if he saw it. He did go out, and after looking around for a moment, spotted it himself. I decided to ride over to his apartment (it was only about a couple miles away) while keeping an eye on it. At one point, I saw two of the objects flying around, but he never saw the second one. I don't really remember for sure why I never bothered to try and get pictures of the objects, but I think I may have been out of film (I didn't have any type of digital camera back then besides a cheap little webcam type camera). At least one of the objects was visible for probably around 20 minutes. If I had known at the time it was going to stick around that long, I would have probably picked up some film or a disposable camera at a drug store. Unfortunately, when you're watching a UFO that seems to be able to fly however it wants to, you're reluctant to take your eyes away from it for to long for risk of losing sight of it. Ultimately, the last one that was visible flew out of sight either shortly before I arrived at my friend's house, or shortly after I got there (I don't really remember, I just remember us standing out in the parking lot talking about it). One of his neighbors (who was actually another friend of ours brother-in-law at the time) walked outside at this point and said something to us and we told him what we saw. It was too bad he hadn't come out sooner, because he had a video camera he could have filmed it with.

I don't live to far away from Fort Bragg, which would indicate to some people that it probably had something to do with the military. It may have been, but if it was, I've never seen the military do anything like it before or since (and I've lived near Fort Bragg my entire life). Besides, the objects were actually flying in the opposite direction of Fort Bragg for most of the time they were visible. I did however notice there seemed to be more conventional aircraft in the sky that night shortly after our sighting of the fireball UFOs, leading me to wonder if the military was investigating or chasing whatever the objects were. Me and my friend decided to call 911 and ask if anyone had reported seeing strange lights in the sky (originally we were going to just call a radio station and ask instead of tying 911 up with a question, but we couldn't remember any of the stations phone numbers and couldn't find a phone book either). The operator said there hadn't been any reports of strange lights in the sky, but also said that Fort Bragg was doing some jumps that night (the 82^nd Airborne consists of paratroopers who train by jumping out of planes). Whatever the objects were, they certainly weren't paratroopers. For one, paratroopers don't glow or burn like these objects did. Two, these objects were larger than a person. And three, paratroopers fall…they don't fly around the sky for approximately 20 minutes. To this day, we still don't know what we saw in the sky that night.

I don't specifically remember asking anyone besides my sister if they saw something strange that night, but I think I did ask other people. I think my friend did too. I don't recall anyone else we know seeing them, although I think I vaguely remember my friend saying something about someone he worked with saying someone they knew had seen something. My sister and her family had not seen it, but she mentioned seeing some sort of metallic looking object with a white glow one night. At some point after that, I think I saw what my sister and her family had seen that night. I'm not 100% sure what it was, but I think it was actually the International Space Station. Sometimes it is visible to the naked eye. The fireball UFOs we saw that night are not so easily explained. They are even somewhat unique among UFO sightings, as typically most UFO sightings involve saucers, triangles, cigar shaped, and bell shaped UFOs. These just appeared to be fireballs. I sometimes wonder how much more we might be able to see in the skies at night if we just took the time to look.

I just wish we could have seen those fireballs closer up. Perhaps then, we would have been able to tell what those "chariots" of fire were that night.

Jeane Dixon and the Final Pope

I came across an article today regarding one of Jeane Dixon's prophecies that allegedly alludes to the rise of the anti-Christ. For those not familiar with Dixon, she was an American psychic and astrologer who is famous for predicting the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and is also famous for providing psychic and astrological advice to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan (and maybe some others in between them). Although she made many accurate predictions over the years, she also got some wrong too. Her excuse though was the information she received wasn't necessarily wrong, but she had interpreted it wrong. What caught my eye in that article though was a prophecy she had regarding the Papacy. The article quotes her as saying:

"During this century one pope will suffer bodily harm. Another will be assassinated. The assassination will be the final blow to the office of the Holy See. This pope will be the same one who will be chosen in the not too distant future but whose election will not be approved by the Roman clergy. His influence, however, will be such that he will win out over the objections of his opponents. While this pope will be the last one ever to reign as singular head of the Church, the beginnings of this change will occur with one of his predecessors who will give far-reaching powers to his cardinals. These same cardinals will use their powers to replace him with one more to their liking."

That quote reminded me of my recent posting titled The Prophecy of Saint Malachy. It regards Saint Malachy's prediction of who the final person on the throne at the Vatican would be (as well as vague predictions regarding the various popes that would rule during the years leading up to the final Catholic leader). This particular prediction of Jeane Dixon's reminded me of this prophecy. She says that during this century one pope would suffer bodily harm. Considering she published that prediction in the 1970's, that would mean the prediction regards a pope that reigned during the 70's, 80's, or 90's. This would appear to be a reference to Pope John Paul II, who was wounded in an assassination attempt by Mehmet Ali Agca in 1981. Her prediction then says that another pope will be assassinated. What's interesting about that is it says that the assassination will be the final blow to the office of the Holy See (the Pope) and that this particular Pope would be in charge, but that his election would not be approved by the Roman clergy. This sounds very similar to what Saint Malachy said about Peter the Roman. Saint Malachy said that Peter the Roman would be on the throne at the Vatican, but he doesn't explicitly state that Peter the Roman would be elected Pope. So if you compare Saint Malachy's prophecy to Jeane Dixon's, it appears Jeane Dixon may be predicting the assassination of Peter the Roman (Although there is a slight possibility her prediction of a papal assassination is a reference to John Paul I. John Paul I's death after only 33 days in office was said to probably have been a heart attack, but there was no autopsy done, so no one knows for sure. There are conspiracy theories that claim he was actually assassinated. Nevertheless, judging by the context of Jeane Dixon's prediction, I don't think she was making reference to John Paul I, but I thought I would at least point that out.)

So it seems we may have yet another reference to the final pope. I have to wonder though, did Jeane Dixon merely read Saint Malachy's prophecy and adapt it into her own prediction? Or is what she predicted a legitimate prophecy of her own? Judging by her long history of psychic and astrological predictions, it may very well be a legitimate prophecy of hers. We may never really know for sure though. The only thing we can do now is wait and see if her prediction is accurate.

Angels, Demons, and Aliens

As I pointed out in my earlier blog posting "Reality that you can't see", how we view the reality around us is really a manifestation of our mind's interpretation of it. With that thought in mind, I would like to expand it a little further and apply it to the UFO phenomenon. Others before me have stated that the modern UFO phenomenon is really nothing new, but merely a different manifestation of what ancient people saw and perceived as gods, angels, or demons. I think they may be on to something. For instance, 2 Kings 2:11, Elisha saw Elijah taken away into heaven by a whirlwind after the appearance of a chariot of fire and horses. Some would say the story is a hallucination or a fabrication, others would say a chariot of fire and horses literally flew by, and some others would say it was a UFO that would look familiar to us, but Elisha only knew how to describe it in terms he was familiar with.

Well perhaps Elisha really did see a chariot of fire and horses, although what we would have seen if we viewed the same event may have been different. So in other words, if we could time travel back to that event and watch it along side of Elisha, he may have seen a chariot of fire and horses taking away Elijah in a whirlwind, but we may have seen a flying saucer beaming him up. We have seen images of flying saucers and other spaceships flying to far away places in space on television and in movies for decades now. Elisha had never seen such things. So his mind interpreted the phenomenon in a manner familiar to him. Chariots and horses would have been what was familiar to him, and the fact that they were flaming denoted that there was something special about this chariot and these horses (the fact that they were flying). In our case, we see something metallic that appears to be mechanical and/or electronic based. Typically UFOs we see look saucer shaped, triangle shaped, cigar shaped, or bell shaped (a.k.a. acorn shaped). Perhaps how we see these objects is partially reflective of what we are conditioned to think they look like, and partially reflective of us recognizing it is something 'special' and foreign to us (which is why we don't see it as just a plane or helicopter). Perhaps if Elisha saw them, he would still see a flaming chariot being pulled by flaming horses. And it's not necessarily that there is a right or wrong way of seeing it. What's important is that it is seen and manifests itself in the minds of those who see it in a way that is understandable to them. In other words, what Elisha saw and what we may see manifests as something somewhat familiar, yet as something special and foreign to us at the same time. And it's not necessarily that the angels/aliens/demons are disguising themselves (though that isn't to say that they can't), but how we see them depends on who we are.

I think this phenomenon may be further evidenced by how people see ghosts. Some people ask the question of how a ghost could have clothes on (the clothes were never alive, thus they can't be 'dead' either). Well, when people see a ghost, it's not that the ghost isn't there, they just aren't seeing it in its true form. Their mind interprets the existence of the ghost in a way familiar to them. Typically, most people only know what a person looks like with their clothes on, so the mind interprets the existence of a ghost as a person with clothes on. I think the same can be said for angels, demons, and maybe aliens. Some people have seen angels in the traditional artistic form of a person with wings and a halo, others have seen them as glowing figures, sometimes with golden hair or apparel, and others have seen them as ordinary looking people that perform some good deed then suddenly disappear. I think in the case of angels, how people see them may be based partially on what a person thinks an angel should look like, and partially on how the angel projects itself. In other words, in some cases an angel may want a person to see it as a spiritual being, in other cases it may just want to help someone out without alarming them or bringing unnecessary attention to itself (such as when they appear as an ordinary person). The same could be said for demons too. Demons have been portrayed and seen as all different types of nasty and grotesque creatures. In some cases though, they may be be seen or portrayed as beautiful and seductive creatures (we also know that demons sometimes disguise themselves as angels of the light). Aliens are typically seen as reptilians, Nordics, or grays (it's been said there are two types of grays, those commonly portrayed with large almond shaped black eyes, and another kind with more human like eyes and features, though still gray and hairless). Perhaps these aliens we see are some type of manifestation of angels and/or demons.

So to conclude, although it is possible for angels and demons to project a certain image of themselves to us, how we actually see them is largely a manifestation of how our mind interprets them. We should also be careful not to confuse a spiritual vision with an actual event. For instance, in the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel sees a vision of God and a wheel within a wheel. Some have interpreted this to be some type of UFO, but in reality, I think this was a spiritual vision portrayed to Ezekiel specifically. So even if you or I or anyone else had been sitting next to him when he saw it, we probably would not have seen anything. While on the other hand, if we had been with Elisha when he saw Elijah taken away into heaven, we would have probably seen something; whether or not or it would have been a chariot of fire or a flying saucer I don't know for sure. The difference is one is a vision, the other is an actual event that is occurring. While people of today and people of the past may view certain similar events differently, it doesn't necessarily mean that the events themselves are different. We should also be careful not to be pretentious and assume that we are seeing it the "right" way. What's important is not necessarily how it was seen, but that it was seen.